44 Interesting Facts about Nickels that Make YOU Wonder
Nickel is one of the most common elements used for different materials like coins, wires, stainless steel, and even military equipment. This metal is a useful material because of its ductility and corrosion resistance. In the periodic table of the elements, it is classified as metal element 28, which is between cobalt and copper.
There are many less-known interesting facts about nickels that can tackle your mind after knowing them. If you want to know to learn more about this abundant element, kindly read the whole post.
44 Interesting Facts about Nickels to make you know
No#1: Fifth-most common element on Earth
Nickel is known as the fifth-most naturally-occurring metallic element in the world.
No#2: Excellent properties
Nickel has remarkable chemical and physical properties, making it an essential element for hundreds of thousands of products.
how is nickel formed
No#3: 100% recyclable
As it is collected from natural resources, it is fully recyclable. In fact, it is one of the most highly recycled substances that have an inherent quality of recyclability.
how much nickel
No#4: 300 million tons of nickel
Currently, there are around 300 million tons of nickel resources available on Earth.
No#5: 5 countries have 50% of the global nickel resources
50% of the global nickel resources can be found in Canada, Australia, Russia, Indonesia, and South Africa.
No#6: Collection of 80% nickels
Due to the improvement of technologies and better strategies, around 80% of nickels were collected in the last three decades from the first day of the extraction.
No#7: Nickels were found in deep sea
Recent studies showed that approximately 290 million tons of nickels could be found in the deep sea. In the future, it will be easy to extract these nickels due to the improvement of deep-sea mining technologies.
No#8: 2 million tones of Nickels
The world produces and uses more than 2 million tones of new or primary nickel annually.
where is nickel found
No#9: 25 countries nickel production
Only 25 countries in the world are associated with global nickel production.
No#10: Largest nickel producer
Indonesia is the largest producer of nickel in the world. The country produced around 2.7 million metric tons in 2019.
when was nickel discovered
No#11: Discovering nickels
Nickel was first discovered in 1751 by Alex Fredrik Cronstedt, which got recognition in 1754.
is nickel magnetic
No#12: Usage of nickel
Nickel has excellent malleability, anti-corrosion, and magnetic properties, mainly used in batteries, nickel-based alloys, steel, and electroplating.
No#13: The Effects of Nickel on Human Health
A normal adult human being has around 10mg of nickel in his/her body. Lacking nickel in the body may lead to different diseases. However, you can’t consume an excessive amount of nickel as it may cause poisoning.
No#14: Melting point and boiling point
The melting point of nickel is around 1,455 °C, and its boiling point is around 2,732 °C. Hence, it is not easy to destroy its original properties that much easier.
No#15: High electrical and thermal conductivity
Nickel has high electrical conductivity, so electric heat or charge can quickly travel through materials. Additionally, it has excellent thermal conductivity too; it is suitable to use as a heat exchanger in corrosive environments.
No#16: 0.007% of Earth’s crust
Earth’s crust is made from several elements like oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc. Out of them, only 0.007% is covered by nickel elements, which is merely noticeable.
No#17: Kupfernickel
Nickel word came from the German word “Kupfernickel,” meaning “Old Nick’s copper.”
No#18: A naturally magnetic element
There are only three natural elements that have strong magnetic power: nickel, cobalt, and iron.
No#19: Glass becomes green in color
When you add nickel element to glasses, it becomes a green color —because it is a powerful colorizing agent.
No#20: Nickels in foods
Several foods have nickel elements, including chocolate and cocoa powders, black tea, dried beans and peas, soy milk and chocolate milk, certain grains, etc.
No#21: Nickels for stainless steel
Nearly half of nickel produced goes into the production of stainless steel.
why is nickel important
No#22: Pure nickel is rare
Though there are abundant nickels available throughout the world, pure nickel is pretty rare to found.
No#23: 39% recycled nickels
There are around 39% recycled nickels used every year, along with new nickels.
No#24: Nickel-Titanium alloy
Nickel-Titanium alloy is one of the unique nickels in the world that can retain its original shape after heating and bending it.
No#25: Age detection
Researchers often use nickels to find the actual age of meteorites.
No#26: Oceans are the source of nickels
Apart from collecting nickels from other sources, a significant amount of nickels is collected from large reserves in the ocean.
No#27: Skin allergy from Nickels
Nickel is considered to be a prevalent cause of skin allergies. Because of the same reason, it was discontinued from widespread use in coinage.
No#28: Five stable isotopes
There are five stable and common isotopes for nickels; nickel-58 is the most commonly used isotope with 68.077% natural abundance.
what is nickel used for
No#29: Nickel in US coins
Around 25% of nickel elements are used in US coins, which is also known as metal content. Though it is called metal content, 75% copper is used to make these coins.
No#30: lithium-ion batteries have nickel components
Nickel is being widely used for lithium-ion batteries because it is cheaper than cobalt. It is especially used d for electric vehicles to power them through batteries,
No#31: Success for investment in nickel
As the demand for nickel is growing, investing in nickel is promising. The element is being used for different products that have a high growth share.
nickel properties
No#32: Chemical properties
Nickels are free from reactivity. It acts very unhurriedly while dissolving in acids.
No#33: Nickels are found in minerals
You have already known finding pure nickel is rare because most of them are found in minerals. You can’t find them as a different metal in the ground. Product companies undergo several methods and procedures to collect nickel from minerals.
No#34: Thousands of alloys and products made from nickels
Nickels are used around 3,000 different alloys, but they are not the only components for it. Apart from that, more than 300,000 products contain small, medium, or higher percentages of nickels.
No#35: Color of nickels
Nickel mainly looks like hard but displaceable/ductile metal that appears while and silver in color.
No#36: It has magnetic properties
Nickel also has magnetic properties—you can easily polish the external server of nickel to make it shiny. As it is dust and corrosion-resistant, the external environment can merely damage its original properties.
No#37: Nickel is a ferromagnetic element
Nickel is a ferromagnetic element, largely used in different types of everyday items like telephones, floppy discs, generators, loudspeakers, electric motors, transformers, and many other things.
No#38: What is so important about nickels?
Different types of nickels we put on various products— because it is used as a protective layer for corrosion. More importantly, nickel is nobler than the substrate. Another reason we use nickel is to deliver an aesthetically pleasing product.
No#39: Where can nickels be found?
Most nickels are mainly found in the ores niccolite, pentlandite, millerite, garnierite, and pyrrhotite.
No#40: How much nickel is toxic?
If human beings consume more than 0.5 g nickel orally, it may be acutely toxic for their body.
No#41: 94 million metric tons of nickels available on Earth in 2020
According to several studies, there are around 94 million metric tons of nickels available on Earth in 2020.
No#42: Is nickel safe to touch?
If you use nickel-included products for a long time, they may absorb into your body. But after a certain time, your skin will react negatively, and you may experience an allergic reaction to nickel.
No#43: How long will nickel last?
A special type of nickel, Nickel-59, declines with a half-life of 75,000 years.
No#44: How much nickel is in a Tesla battery?
Around 35% of nickel elements are used in Tesla batteries.
1913 Liberty Nickel is the rarest nickel on Earth, and there are only five nickels available from this version. In 2007, one of them was sold at $5 million, purchased by an unnamed collector in California.
There are so many important things you can learn from nickel elements. Hopefully, we have significant ideas of interesting facts about nickels. Thanks for reading!
